Ukraine said Russia appeared to be regrouping for an offensive on Slavyansk, a symbolically important city controlled by Ukraine in the eastern Donetsk region.
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Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational zones”.
Russian missiles and rockets have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
“These are not just missile strikes from the air and the sea,” Vadim Skibitsky, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said on Saturday. “We are seeing shelling all along the contact line, all along the front line. There is active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters.
“There is indeed some activation of the enemy along the whole front line… Apparently preparations are now underway for the next stage of the offensive.
Ukraine’s military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive on Slavyansk, a symbolically important Ukrainian-held city in the eastern Donetsk region.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling of urban areas over the past three days as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24 intensifies.
Rockets hit the northeastern town of Chuhuyev in Kharkiv Oblast on Friday evening, killing three people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three others, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said.
“Three people lost their lives, why? Why? Because Putin went crazy?” said Raisa Shapoval, 83, a distraught resident sitting in the ruins of her home.
To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad missiles hit the Dnieper River town of Nikopol, killing two people who were found in the rubble, Governor Valentin Reznichenko said.
Moscow, which calls the invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” its neighbor, says it is using precision weapons to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure and protect its own security. She has repeatedly denied attacking civilians.
Kyiv and the West say the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to retake a country that broke free from Moscow’s rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered military units to step up operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes in eastern Ukraine and other Russian-controlled areas where he believed Kyiv could hit civilian infrastructure or residents, according to a ministry statement.
His remarks appeared to be a direct response to what Kyiv said was a series of successful strikes against 30 Russian logistics and munitions centers using several multiple-launch missile systems recently supplied by the West.
The strikes are wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia’s offensive capabilities, a Ukrainian defense ministry spokesman said on Friday.
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